Dancing Queen

Ava has moved and grooved to music since she was very young, but she's developed some new dance moves lately!

Ava's (Relatively) Old Grooves:
* Swaying side to side from the waist
* Clapping

Ava's (Relatively) New Grooves:
* Shaking her booty side to side.
* Stomping her feet rapidly and repeatedly
* The Twist (Note: the dance VS the song I always sing)

So the plan was to show videos of Ava dancing at different ages... but it seems I only have ones of Ava at 10 months (June) and Ava at 14 months (October)...  so that will have to suffice!  And ignore the fact that in each of these videos she's watching a different TV show.... Trust me when I say it says nothing about my parenting skills.  (Shut up, Jason!)  Oh, and all the videos are sideways.  I tried rotating them, but they looked really stupid in YouTube, so just turn your head for a while.  Take a break if you feel a cramp coming on, but all 5 videos are between 0:15 and 1:07 long, and there's commentary in between.

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FIRST is a video of Ava at 10 months doing a kind of dance on all fours to the tune of the Good Luck Charlie theme song.  I LOVE Good Luck Charlie.  It rocks!!  Ava loves Charlie, the baby, and I love the whole family, especially Teddy and their mom...  Jason says (jokingly... I hope...) that I'm going to be that kind of mom, and I don't know whether to be flattered or offended............  I'll go with flattered.  She's cool.

Grooves featured: Swaying

SECOND, we have Ava the next day, dancing to a song from The Fresh Beat Band.  This show is okay.  It's definitely silly, but it encourages dancing, for sure!  :)  But their songs come on during "commercial" breaks, and that's all we really need.  (That's why this video is so short.)

Grooves featured: Swaying (or possibly capoeira, although I haven't done any Turbo Jam in a while...)

THIRD, we have Ava at 14 months dancing to that "hot dog" song at the end of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

*Cue rant*  This show bugs me... I realize that kids shows aren't always realistic, but at least by watching Team Umizoomi, she will realize that things are put together with screws and not held together with "sticky tape"...  And when a lock is star-shaped, the star on the key has to be facing the lock and not sideways, like the MMC episode we saw yesterday.  Every time I see it, it bugs me more.  What does "super cheers" even mean?  All the made-up words drive me crazy!  And, worst of all, if Pete were a real person, he'd have committed suicide by now.  He is forced to "play" the most RIDICULOUS roles for the show... I'm always so embarrassed for him... even though he's a cartoon.  *End rant*

But that "hot dog" song is really a hit with Ava, as you will see...

Grooves featured: Booty shaking, Stomping (+ Mommy-snuggling... Awwwww!!)

FOURTH, at almost 15 months, a sneak-peak at Halloween.  In honor of the holiday, the kids had the option of wearing costumes to story time at the library on Tuesday.  If possible, she is EVEN MORE CUTE dressed as a little Chinese girl!  Auntie Alice should appreciate that!  :)

Oooh... I should probably also note that Ava is standing up in the middle with the story time lady, facing the WHOLE GROUP (of probably 20-25 kids plus their mom or dad), doing a little performance... No stage fright for this girl!!

Grooves featured: Booty shaking, Stomping (+ Dolly hugging... Awwwww!)

FIFTH, but third in chronological order, at 14 months, is my favorite Ava-dancing video I've taken!  (Sorry about the shaking... my dog, Josie, was licking my arm...)  This time, Ava is dancing to a "I'm So Scared of You" from the Monster Party episode of The Backyardigans.

The Backyardigans is Ava's favorite kids show... I DVR it for her (it usually comes on during her nap) because I really really love it, too!  :)  The kids are so creative, going on all sorts of make-believe adventures in their backyards, and each episode has songs in a different musical style from country to rock to hip-hop, from school fight-songs to psychedelic soul music to the Viennese waltz.  Plus, they have real-life people do the dancing with those little motion-sensor tabs on them, then their dance moves are transferred to the animated characters via computer graphics special effects!  How cool is that?

Oooh... and can you keep a secret?  Don't tell Ava, okay?  Look what I got her for Christmas...

The Backyardigans Beanie Baby Set!

Anyway, back to the videos...  This really is the best one!  Ava doing the twist is the best thing EVER!

Grooves featured: Stomping, Clapping, The Twist (+ Dog-tail Pulling)

I think the videos speak for themselves, but if not, all of them are squealing, "SO FREAKING ADORABLE!!!!!"  (If I do say so myself... :)

Sara

Blowing Bubbles

I didn't have the camera in the bathtub with us, but tonight Ava discovered that if she lays on her tummy she can put her face in the water and blow bubbles!  She's going to be able to "swim like a pish" in no time!  :)

She sucked in some water a couple of times and coughed and coughed and coughed, but that didn't stop her from try-try-againing!  :)

UPDATE:  Suzi, I did better than pictures!  Here is a video.... :)

Look at that adorable nakey butt.... SO CUTE!!  :)  If you want to see a bigger version, click the "Watch on YouTube" button.  It's bigger over there.

July, Part I

All right!  Let's dissect some more missing time...  Here is what I have from the first 18 days of July...

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FB - July 2 at 7:35pm: Ava walked! It was totally legit, too! She was holding onto the coffee table, turned toward me, let go and stood there, then took 3 steps over to me! :D - YAY!  It was AWESOME!  It took her a WHILE before she was steady, but now she's running around and I can barely keep up with her!

FB -  July 6 at 3:51pm: Ava's new trick: Blowing raspberries. Favorite time to do this: Mealtime. .... :P - Oh, THAT was fun!  Fortunately, she only did that for about 3 days.... but blowing raspberries has a completely different affect when you have food in your mouth... :P


Photo - July 10 at 10:54pm: Random picture of Josie.

FB - July 11 at 4:42pm: The downside to having a baby who sleeps 10.5 hrs at night: nap time is nearly nonexistent... - Oh, boy, Sara... you have no idea!

FB - July 11 at 11:38pm: FRIENDS WITH KIDS: How do you transition a kid from nursing/baby food to cow's milk/table food? Ava is nearly a year old now, and I'm wondering how this is supposed to work. I can't imagine you should just go, "BAM! No more of anything you're used to! Here's some whole milk and a sandwich! Good luck, considering you still only have 2 teeth!" Thoughts/ideas? What's worked for you? - I got a lot of great advice, and Ava did just fine with the transition.  She doesn't eat NEARLY enough grains, so I'm working on that.. But she's got 8 teeth now, and she's learning how to use them!  She LOVES fruit!  She'd eat nothing but fruit all day long if I let her!

Photo - July 12 at 10:14am: Ava at story time at the library!  The lady who runs story time (in the cropped pants there) blows bubbles for the kids at the end of each session, and Ava LOVES it!  She always ends up with dried bubble soap in her hair, but that's fine!

FB - Suzi Grant - July 12 at 3:10pm:  Holy 8 years of being married, Batman!! I can't believe it's been that long. Hope y'all are enjoying the ride! Talk to you soon. Can we do math? O:) - Jason and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this year!  And I use the word "celebrated" VERY loosely!  I think I saw him for 20 minutes that day.  I'm trying to remember if we even celebrated later... I think we might have gotten Chinese or something.  *shrugs*  We'll do something nice for our 10-year. 


Photo - July 13 at 5:22pm: Random picture of Lucy.  Sometimes when we go on walks, she gets tired and just lays down... *eye roll*

Photo - July 13 at 7:58pm: Ava says, "Mamamamama... is it bath time?"

Photos - July 14 at 9:40pm: So, for about 3 months, we didn't have access to our little storage room attached to the building.  The people who lived here before us (who are related to the owners) still had their stuff in there.  So we had a bunch of broken-down boxes stacked against the wall in Ava's room..  Mr. Kiggerz was having fun with them, but then Ava came over to "get" him...  So he escaped and perched juuuust high enough that she couldn't reach.  Butt head... ;)

FB - July 15 at 12:54am: Am I the only one who feels like they can TOTALLY wait to see Harry Potter when it comes to redbox? I've been over it since before book 7 came out... -  Ha!  I was kinda surprised I didn't get lynched when I posted this!  I dunno...  I'm just so OVER Harry Potter... I wonder when it's coming to redbox though.  I wouldn't MIND seeing it.  And in my defense, I haven't been to the movies in MONTHS.  I didn't even get to go see The Help!  I AM going to go see Breaking Dawn, part 1 though.  It comes out ON my birthday, and I'm getting a sitter.  And I might go eat Chinese buffet by myself while I'm at it.  Yummmmmmmmmm....

FB - July 16 at 8:42pm: For dinner, we're doing grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup Mexican style: cheese quesadillas and black bean soup (which has a can of tomatoes in it). I used dried black beans, which I soaked and cooked earlier today.... First time using dry beans.... Wish us luck! - YUM!  So I have a ton of bags of dried beans, but I've never cooked with them before, so this was an experiment.  The soup turned out really yummy!I've made it once since then, too.  The cheese quesadillas go GREAT with it, too!  If you're interested in making the soup, HERE is the recipe.  I couldn't find veggie stock, so I used chicken stock, but the original recipe is vegetarian.  I subbed half a bag of dried black beans for the 2 cans.  A bag of beans really only makes about 3.5 cans of beans, but since it's a soup, exact measurements aren't so important... and I wanted to be able to make it twice!


Photo - July 18 at 9:55pm:  The beginning of Ava's climbing phase.  It's getting worse and worse and worse the older she gets...  (Jason is JUST outside the picture to the left, in case you're wondering... or worried....) The color on this picture is TERRIBLE.  I don't even know which onesie she's wearing, because she doesn't have one THAT color!  And that's Jason's iPhone 4!  Just saying... My phone's camera may have worse resolution, but at least the color is okay!

Anyway, I'm not sure what all this tells you... That we're boring and don't really do anything?  Probably.  The bubbles are a highlight of MY week, too... ;)

No, Seriously!

I talk a lot about how I have a bad memory, but I get the feeling people think, "Yeah, yeah... so does everyone!"

But seriously.  I have a TERRIBLE memory.  Ask my husband.  It's awful.  

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..... our hard drive crashed some time in August or something, and we hadn't backed up the pictures we took between June 19th and midday August 2nd, Ava's birthday, plus all of Ava's birthday videos except the one I uploaded to YouTube.  The pictures we took after that, up until the computer crashed, were still on the camera.

Personally, I have no idea what happened between June 19th and August 2nd, other than my mom came to visit and we went to Chicago to see the bean and to Chinatown to get dim sum.  Yep.  So, if you'll bare with me, we can do some sleuthing à la Nancy Drew, only 21st-century-like.  

FIRST:  Facebook (FB) statuses.

SECOND:  Cell phone pictures.  Yep.  We actually DO have some pictures from the time in question.... they're just nowhere near as comprehensive, and most of them are pretty bad quality!  Sorry about that!

So if you'll ignore my apparent stupidity and the bad pictures, let's start with the end of June..... *cue flashback music*

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Photo - June 18 at 7:17pm:  Jason and I ordered a thin crust pizza from Papa's Pizza just down the road.  We got a family-sized Papa's Special.  I was SHOCKED at how much it cost.... but it WAS pretty huge!

Photo - June 20 at 11:16pm: Just hanging out on the bed.  Ava LOVES to be on our bed.

Ava and Josie

FB - June 22 at 11:17am: "There's a beautiful breeze coming in through the windows! Now if only our bedrooms had screens on them, so the kitties wouldn't escape..." - This is a reference to the fact that we didn't have screens on our windows for like 2 months after we moved in, so we couldn't open the windows on the bedroom windows to cool them off.  It got PRETTY HOT in our rooms.

FB - June 22 at 2:38pm: "CRAP. I just washed our light blue bathroom rugs with the new GREEN kitchen rugs, and now the bathroom rugs are a dirty pale greenish color. BLEGH...." - Self explanatory?  I tried rewashing.  I tried bleaching.  They're still just really dirty-looking now!

FB - June 23 at 6:48pm: "Making Yorkshire Pudding.... I think they look like the pictures.... :)" - I had a lot of eggs and milk I needed to use, so I made those!  I haven't made them since.  :P

FB - June 27 at 2:11pm: "Oh boy... Ava has started throwing food she doesn't want on the floor for the dogs. :P" - WOW!  I thought she'd been doing that since the beginning of time!  She still does this, for SURE!!!

Photo - June 27 at 7:13pm: Jason went out to some fancy dinner paid for by work.  Some kind of fish and rice, plus inedible garnish....

Photo - June 28 at 10:19pm: Ava having fun at story time!

Photo - June 29 at 2:38pm: My mom sent us this cute baby doll stroller.  Ava used it for about a week, then started walking and forgot about it.  Well, that's not TOTALLY true.  There's a little bear on top (her right hand is on it) that plays music, and she likes to push the button on its tummy and then dance to the music.

Photo - June 30 at 2:38pm: Ava and mommy shopping at Walmart.  She likes to sit in the front of shopping carts, but she usually ends up facing backward.  She's only sideways here!

FB - June 30 at 10:07pm: "Yay! Ava has FINALLY learned how to clap her hands! Next: walking." - How exciting!  See how fast she was growing up?  And she'll take her first steps in 2 days!

Wasn't that fun?  Stay tuned for the next couple of posts, where we figure out what happened in July! :P


Sara


PS - I found a picture of Ava at the aquarium on my phone.  I added it to the end of the last post.  Check it out!